The Name of God
by seinka
Summary: Two seasoned daevas are missing. The last place they were seen were the Idian Depths. A rescue party is trying to find out what happened. But instead of their friends, they find piece of ancient technology they have never seen before.
1. Guided by Stars

A black-haired Asmodian daeva dressed in battle clothes of the same colour walked through Segarunerk's bazaar and looked around at every corner. With every step she made her expression became more and more worried and the joints on her hand were almost white from clutching her battle staff. Even her mantras which were always in perfect harmony sounded a bit off-tune. Suddenly she saw a familiar person. A young-looking girl with ginger hair and freckled cheeks was pacing back and forth in front of one of the shops and biting the tips of her claws.

"Hey, Mayinka!" she waved at her and the girl stopped and looked around in surprise.

"Hi, Cocci," she smiled.

"Have you seen Gavu?" the black-haired asked when she got closer. "We should meet here, but I can't find him. He said he'll get here before me and wait..."

"Do you think something might have happened to him?" Mayinka frowned. Both Gavu and Coccinella were her friends and she didn't like the idea of her friends being hurt. That's why she became a cleric at the first place.

"Probably," she nodded. „He went through the portal in Beritran Foothold, I saw him entering. I had something to do in Danuar Spire and by the time I was done, the Balaur seized the portal, so I had to go through Danaria. And we agreed to meet here."

"Maybe he was here and just went for a walk or had something to do?"

"He would at least leave ne note here. No, he didn't come, he's lost somewhere in these Depths and maybe hurt..."

"I'm sorry, Cocci, I would help you searching, but I'm waiting for Anvbis here, he... promised we'll meet here... give him few more minutes, when he comes, I'm sure he'll help too," Mayinka bit her lip nervously. Something in her voice or expression caught Coccinella's attention.

"Just... how long are you waiting here?" she asked with suspicion.

"I don't know," Mayinka shrugged helplessly. "An hour? Maybe..."

"Daeva's waiting here for five hours, nyerk," a shugo at the shop stand wiggled his tail. "Daeva's scaring the customers, nyerk."

"Five hours?" Mayinka got frightened. "No, that's impossible! He's never _that_ late!"

The two women looked at each other with worries in their eyes and immediately knew the only thing they could do.

"We have to find them," they said in unison.

"But... where do we start?" the cleric looked around in confusion.

"Do you know where was Anvbis heading?"

"No."

"Then we'll go to the Danuar Vestibule and Mausoleum, I know Gavu must have gone through that area," Coccinella decided.

"Yes. Okay. That sounds like a good plan," Mayinka nodded. "Please, lead the way, Cocci."

"Hey, girls, how're you today?" they heard a familiar male voice. They turned around and saw an older man in long red coat and purple helmet carrying mace and shield. "Have you seen Anvbis? He owes me some potions and I'm trying to get him for two days already."

"Two days?" Mayinka couldn't believe what he said.

"Yeah, you heard me right," he nodded.

"Hey, Rolk," Coccinella spoke to him. "Gavu and Anvbis got lost, probably somewhere here in Idian Depths. We're going to look for them. Will you help us?"

"Nah, I'll pass. Good luck, girls."

"But if you help us, you might get your potions faster," Mayinka pondered.

"Alright, I can't let you two beatuties to go there alone," Rolk resigned. "Lead the way."

The priest trio waited for a suitable moment when most of the Elyos in the Bazaar either went away or looked in other direction, so no one could chase them once they got outside the reach of the Shugo bodyguards, and then quickly, but carefully walked through the Danuar Processional, an area filled with worms and undead creatures. They weren't afraid more than anyone else would be, but unnecessary fights would make the searching and possible rescue of the two missing daevas difficult. They were lucky. Only two skeletons and one ghostly warrior crossed their way and they dealt with them very shortly. Once they reached the Danuar Vestibule, only two people stood watch there.

"Greetings, Brif," Coccinella called. "Have you seen Gavu?" She didn't need to add any description, Gavu was one of the best Asmodian sorcerers and became quite famous here in the Depths.

"Or Anvbis? White-haired ranger in a mask and long black coat," Mayinka added.

"Haven't seen the ranger," the guard captain replied. "But the sorcerer was here few hours back. He felt some _disturbance in Aether_ or what from over there and went to check it."

"Thanks," the chantress waved at him for goodbye and the three daevas headed for the ruins Brif pointed at. For several minutes they were searching through the rocks, but found no trace.

"Uhm, guys, what's this?" Mayinka said just when they wanted to give up. They looked at a huge circle she was staring at.

"A piece of old Danuar technology?" Rolk suggested.

"It doesn't look like one," the ginger-haired girl objected.

"And since when you're expert on Danuar technology?" the old cleric didn't take her objection seriously.

"I'm not, but this looks creepy," Mayinka insisted. "Even creepier than that broken Hyperion at Pandarunerk's Delve. And look at those symbols, they aren't even similar to anything else here!" obviously she started to be a bit hysteric. That happened sometimes, when she was worried and under pressure.

"They look like star constellations," Coccinella pointed out.

"Star constellations?" Mayinka looked confused.

"Yes, here in Balaurea the sky isn't occupied by Elysea, so at night I can see stars. The Reians use star maps for orientation in the desert after sunset," the chantress explained. "But I haven't seen them on anything of Danuar, so yes, you're right, this is weird. And the Aether is not much stable around it, this might be the thing Gavu tried to explore."

"Okay, let's look around, maybe we'll find something more of it," Rolk decided and started searching the ring's nearest surroundings. After a while he found a device with the same symbols as were on the ring. Then right next to it was a stone tablet which contained seven symbols. Coccinella was able to identify six of them, the seventh looked like two halves of a circle separated from each other. During the time when Coccinella and Rolk were speculating what to do with it, Mayinka studied the tablet carefully. Then she got a crazy idea. She stood up and pressed the symbols on the device in the exact order as the stone carving showed. The huge ring started making deep sounds and rotating.

"What are you doing?" Rolk asked sceptically.

"If Anvbis was here, he would do the same thing..." Mayinka replied. "And if he did, we can find out what happened to him by doing the same."

"Alright and what now?" Coccinella looked at the ring askant. "There are seven orange lights and nothing more. Just Aether really misbehaving."

"Hey, girls, are you sure you wanna continue with this?" the old daeva didn't like the idea much.

"No, I'm never sure..." Mayinka shook her head and pressed the big orange button in the middle of the device. A huge vortex of unknown shining blue-and-white substance emerged from the ring. And then in returned back and stabilised inside the ring. It would almost look like a water surface, if it wasn't vertical.

The daevas were staring at it in an awe.

"Oh, dear Aion, what _is_ this?" Rolk breathed out. The two girls almost simultaneously stepped towards it, as they realized what would either Gavu or Anvbis do if they managed to activate it this way.

"Cocci, do you think..." Mayinka started carefully.

"Yes. According to the Aether around it, it looks like some kind of portal."

"Okay..." the ginger-haired cleric took a deep breath. "So... portal... that doesn't leave much options."

"You don't plan to go through it, right?" Rolk was cautious.

"We don't?" Mayinka looked confused.

"We should get some backup before going there," Coccinella pondered.

"Okay, then go get the backup, I'll look around there and..."

"No! You can't go through that alone!" Rolk caught her arm, as she tried to get through. They wavered. Mayinka caught Coccinella to get back her balance, but failed and all three of them fell through the glowing circle.

~ x ~

Due to her mantras Coccinella was the first one to regain ger consciousness. Immediately she noticed she's missing everything she had with her except her clothes. She got up and scanned her surroundings. The three daevas were closed in small cells divided by bars made of metal unknown to her. In the fourth cell there was a familiar figure lying on the floor in ragged clothes with dry stains of blood.

"Gavu!" she screamed worried. "Gavu, can you hear me?"

The person moved a bit.

"Cocci?" he whispered so she could barely hear him. "Don't... go there... it's not... like anything we know... danger..." even this exhausted him to the extent he lost consciousness again.

"Gavu! Wake up! Mayinka! Get up and heal him!" Coccinella noticed the cleric was in the cage nearest to the sorcerer. And she was just waking up.

"Uh... what happened?" she opened her eyes and looked around confused.

"Gavu is heavily injured! There! Heal him!"

"Gavu? Here?" Mayinka looked at the direction the chantress pointed at and crawled to the bars. "Hey, Gavu, can you hear me?" she asked kindly and stretched out her hand towards him. There were few inches left to touch him. He didn't move neither respond. "Come on, Gavu, give me your hand."

"Heal him remotely," Coccinella was nervously pacing her cell. "I've seen you doing that before."

"I'm sorry, Cocci, but that requires much more than I'm capable of right now," Mayinka replied sadly while still trying to reach the sorcerer. "The Aether here is very thin, even if I succeed, my healing spells won't be as effective as we're used to. They took everything from me that would make the healing easier."

Coccinella calmed down and concentrated on the Aether around them and then had to admit Mayinka was right. The air around them was breathable, but concentration of the Aether was on very low level. But fortunately it was enough for her to maintain one of her mantras and cast a spell if necessary.

"Gavu, please, just one bit," Mayinka didn't give up. And after several long moments Gavu indeed moved his hand so she could touch his fingers. At that instant she cast her spell.

"Stop, now," the sorcerer said suddenly and drew away a bit from her.

"Why?" she didn't understand and a panic slowly crept to her. "Are my heals wrong?"

"No, just don't waste your Aether, I'm better now," he responded.

"But you're still badly hurt!" Coccinella objected.

"I know that, Cocci," he smiled when he looked at her. "But at this rate Mayinka will exhaust herself before healing me. Mayinka, give me a moment to catch my breath and I'll move closer to you so you can heal the wounds directly."

The cleric nodded.

"I would help too, but these bars look pretty solid," Rolk exclaimed from the other side of the room than Gavu was.

"Sure you would," Gavu smiled again and slowly crawled to the edge of his cell where Mayinka waited. "Thank you guys for coming here for me. But I have no idea how to get out of here."

"Have you seen Anvbis?" she asked with concern when she started with the healing again.

Gavu frowned and knit his eyebrows.

"No," he shook his head. "I haven't seen him. Besides you I haven't seen any Asmodians here," he sighed. "And neither the Balaur nor the Elyos."

"And where is the _here_ exactly?" Rolk asked.

"I don't know," Gavu shrugged. "I went through that ring and appeared in some forest and after a while I ran into a group of those guards. I wasn't prepared for such lack of Aether, so they overpowered me easily, took everything away from me and tossed me here."

"We got ambushed right after we fell off that ring, as if they were waiting for us there," Rolk recollected his memories.

"They probably became more cautious after the fight with me," Gavu said apologetically and frowned. Before anyone could react, the door on one side of the room silently slided aside and group of guards came in. They were all clad in chain mail with plate parts and held staves in their hands. The first one had a gold emblem on his forehead. It reminded them a very strange dragon in fight. Or maybe some type of weapon or some kind of unknown animal, the Asmodians couldn't tell for sure. The other three guards had the same symbol, but tattoed in black instead of made of gold.

"You! What are you doing there?!" he pointed his staff at Mayinka. The tip of the weapon glowed orange for an instant.

"N-n-n-nothing!" Mayinka backed off and raised her hands in a gesture of surrender.

"Don't lie to me, prisoner," he growled. "What device did you use to heal his wounds?"

"N-no device, you took everything from me..." she whimpered.

"You're coming with us," the guard leader decided and the prison cell opened itself. "Jaffa! Kree!"

They came in, took her by her arms and dragged her out of the prison.

"Hey! Where are you taking her?" Coccinella called after them, but was ignored. After they left, she turned to Gavu. "There was something about Anvbis you didn't want to tell Mayinka, right?"

"Yes," he admitted sadly. "I haven't seen him, that's true, but... there is another guy with that name. He's commander or leader of this whatever it is and they refer to him as a god. And he's powerful. I was interrogated by him, he just put some device on my head and all my thoughts, all my memories... he knows everything I know..."


	2. I Am the God

The guards led Mayinka through several corridors with walls mostly golden or brown and covered with countless symbols she'd never seen before. Well, since they discovered the ring, they rarely met anything that would be familiar. Everything felt like some strange dream, but somehow she knew it was all real. Or at least a very good illusion. Could lord Kaisinel be involved directly? Was that ring his trap? But where would he get the idea of all this? Before she could develop the conspiration theory about the Seraphim lord of Illusions, the guards led her into a great room with large window and with a throne in the middle.

"Kneel before the god Anubis," the guard leader said and knelt in front of the throne.

"Anvbis? Where?" she looked around, but one of the soldiers hit her under her knee and she fell to the floor.

"_I_ am Anubis," said a person who at the first sight looked as a pile of clothes on the throne.

"You're not Anvbis," the cleric frowned and immediately was hit to her head by the lower end of the guard's staff. Even though they were kneeling, they mastered their weapons well.

"Leave us," the person ordered. Mayinka decided to call him a _man_, even though its gender wasn't exactly clear. The soldiers bowed deeply and left the room as quickly as they could. Then the man focused all his attention to the prisoner. She couldn't see his face, it was covered by a hood, but she felt his gaze on her. "What do you seek on this planet?"

"Uhm, planet?" the Asmodian girl was confused. She heard the word _planet_ before in relation to Atreia, but hardly anyone used it. But she was certain she didn't want to make this guy angry. His presence was terrifying. "Well, we weren't trying to get to some planet, I didn't even know other planets than Atreia exist. But it makes sense, if there can be one, there can be more... We were just trying to find our friends who got lost, but instead we found that ring and I guess we activated it by mistake..."

"Tell me about this world, Atreia. Where is it?"

"I don't know what you mean..."

"I mean this," he stretched his hand towards her and a ray of light emitted from his palm and hit her head.

_The Aether? How can he control it here? It's so thin, barely noticeable._

"What is the Aether?" the man asked.

_Is he reading my thoughts? Why can't I see anything? Did I close my eyes? And why does my head hurt? It hurts... hurts... make it stop!_

"What is the Aether?" he asked again.

_The Aether is everything. It hurts. Stop. Please stop!_

And suddenly the pain in her head just stopped and she fell to the floor. Because she was kneeling, the fall wasn't that painful. She opened her eyes and saw two arrows sticking out from the man's body. One was in his head, one in his chest. He should be dead by now. But he moved.

"Damn, and I thought I got you," Mayinka heard a disgruntled and familiar voice.

~ x ~

Gavu told Coccinella and Rolk what happened after he found the artifact, how he was captured by the guards called Jaffa, the horrors of interrogation by their leader called Anubis and that he expected slow and permanent death in this cell, but then they showed up.

"What does he want from Mayinka, if he knows everything from you?" Coccinella frowned.

"I don't know," Gavu shrugged. "I don't think I was fully conscious when he asked me about Atreia."

"He has the knowledge, but he doesn't know the meaning of it," a quiet tenor voice sounded from the door. The three daevas turned in that direction and saw a man in mid-fourties with short dark hair and dressed in some kind of black uniform. "And I am afraid that after he finds out, he will be unstoppable."

"Who are you?" Coccinella asked. "And what do you want?"

"I'm Tranneth, one of the servants of lord Anubis," he smiled politely. "And I will lead you safely to the Chappa'ai."

"To what?" Rolk wrinkled his eyebrows as he tried to put meaning to that word.

"The Chappa'ai, some people call it a Stargate," the man said, but when he noticed from their expressions they have never heard of it, he continued: "It's the circle portal you came through to this planet. I will lead you back to it so you can leave safely."

"Why would you do that?" Gavu asked with suspicion.

"It is not in the interest of certain group to let Anubis get that kind of power you possess," he replied calmly. "Does the girl, who is now being interrogated, know the location of your world?"

"What do you mean by _location_?" the sorcerer didn't understand. In fact, none of them did.

"The symbols on the Chappa'ai you need to press so it connects to the one in your world," the man got apparently irritated. "Why did you even come here if you don't know how to get back?"

"I was attracted by the unusual flow of Aether in the portal," Gavu defended himself. "I wanted to know the meaning of this device."

"And we wanted to find him," Coccinella sighed.

"Curiosity killed the cat," the man looked around and then opened their cells. "But it's too dangerous for you to remain here. I'm in the risk of blowing my cover, but I have to take you out of here. I'll contact my superiors and send you to a safe place..."

"So you, instead of this _Anubis_ could get hold on our power, right?" Rolk shook his head. "How are you better then?"

"We have strict rules to respect privacy of technology of those, who are not our enemies," he replied a bit offended. "Unless you'll be willing to share it with us, we won't ask."

"Alright, I suppose we have no other option," Gavu looked at the others and they nodded. "Will you return our gear to us at least?"

"If we can get it without attracting unnecessary attention, then yes."

"And what will happen with Mayinka?" Coccinella was worried.

"She won't survive the interrogation. That's why I have to lead you out now," the man turned towards the exit. "Follow me."

~ x ~

Everything was hazy. As if she looked though a curtain and lens at the same time, she saw two people fighting. One was the man who was interrogating her, he was standing in front of his throne and sending energy blasts at... other man, white-haired, dressed in black leathers and wielding a jet-black bow. After few moments she recognized him and faintly smiled.

_So we found him_, she thought and tried to stand up. It didn't go well, her head was spinning and she felt weak. After few tries she gave up and remained sitting on her legs. She looked around. The fight was fast. Too fast for her to follow, but even she could notice that the hooded man had the upper hand. The ranger could stall him for few moments more, but he was getting tired. That was bad. She repelled the thought to call him, as it would only disrupt his concentration and rather attempted to cast a spell. But as the Aether was so thin here, she could send at the enemy only a little spark which had only a little or no effect. At least injury-related. But the man noticed her.

"You... do not interfere!" he said and sent a chunk of compressed energy at her. But in a blink of eye the ranger appeared in the way and took the hit instead of her. The impact threw his body against a wall behind him.

"Anvbis!" she screamed and crawled towards him. "No, Anvbis, don't die!" she mumbled and tried to gather enough Aether to heal him.

"How dare you use this name?!" the hooded man bellowed and was about to send another blast at them, but was interrupted by a middle-sized fireball in the face. Or at least in the part of body where most of humanoids have faces.

"Hey, Mayinka, are you okay?" Coccinella asked while Gavu and Rolk kept the would-be-god occupied. "Oh, wow, Anvbis is here too."

"He took a hit that was for me and I can't heal him," the ginger-haired cleric sniffed.

"Alright, you can cry later. Now we have to... Oh, no! Gavu!"

Even though they outnumbered him, the ruler of this world was still able to inflict serious injuries on them and because of the lack of the Aether, they weren't able to heal themselves or unleash their full powers. Mayinka was able to partially heal Anvbis, so he could get up and rejoin the battle, but all she could see was their defeat. There was no way they could win this fight without Aether. This world was so different from their own, it didn't have its own aetheric field. The only Aether here substantial enough was the one they brought in their bodies.

_That's it! If they get Aether, they can win!_ Mayinka thought and wiped her tears. She knew how to help and she had to hurry, there was no time for crying. She closed her eyes, relaxed her muscles and concentrated. _Dear Aion, please, let them use my Aether._

A bright white flash filled the room. The eyes of the Asmodians so much used to darkness were blinded for several seconds. But even without their sight the daevas could feel the increase in Aether concentration. They didn't hesitate to use it. Coccinella activated all her mantras and Rolk healed everyone and provided an aetheric shield. The moment their eyes started seeing again, Gavu cast a huge fireball followed by freezing spell and Anvbis fired two arrows covered in lightning aura at once. In matter of seconds the fight was over.

"I guess we killed a god," Rolk summarised the situation.

"We did it," Coccinella breathed out in amazement and embraced Gavu.

"He was tough," Anvbis smirked. "But only when we had no Aether."

"Yeah, where did it came from?" Gavu frowned and looked around. "Mayinka, was it y... Mayinka?"

"What? She was right there..." Coccinella turned to the place where only a pile of clothes remained. "No, Mayinka... what..." tears appeared in her eyes when she stepped towards the pile and poked it.

"She saved us..." Gavu took her gently around her shoulders.

"Did she?" a voice echoed from the door and Tranneth entered. He was alone.

"Hey! Why didn't _you_ help us?!" the chantress shouted. "If you did, Mayinka would... she would..."

"I couldn't risk my mission just because you decided to act recklessly," he objected. "I could lead you to safety. But you were too proud to accept help I could provide."

"That's because we don't leave our friends behind," Coccinella grunted.

"Then take us home now," the ranger told him.

"It's not that easy, Anvbis," Rolk sighed.

"Anubis?" Tranneth looked at him in surprise.

"Yeah, apparently I have the same name as this guy did," he shrugged. "Why can't we go home?"

"That's because every Chappa'ai, the ring portal, has its own address and you need to know it to get to the one that is on your world," Tranneth explained. "You need seven symbols for the address. And there are thousands of Chappa'ai in this galaxy, so trying the symbols at random could lead you to dead planets or even black hole."

"Oh, that's bad."

"So, what we're gonna do now?" Gavu asked.

"Well," the ranger went to the center of the room and sat on the throne. "I'm Anvbis. Which makes me god of this world. Any objections?"

The daevas stared at him in surprise.

"What are your orders, my lord?" Tranneth bowed.


End file.
